Janne Nijman

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Lund University

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Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne

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Johns Hopkins University

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University of Zurich, Switzerland

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University of Haifa

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Universidade de São Paulo

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Université Paris Nanterre

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Austrian Academy of Sciences

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Stockholm University

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Papers by Janne Nijman

Planetary boundaries intra muros: cities and the Anthropocene

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Apr 23, 2021

See the contributions in Neil Brenner (ed), Implosions/Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary U... more

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Planetary boundaries intra muros

VVD heeft blijkbaar moeite met onafhankelijke rechter

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Legal Personality as a Fundamental Concept of International Law

Social Science Research Network, 2016

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Urban Politics of Human Rights

The Grotian Myth and Dutch Modern Imperialism

Grotius’ ‘Rule of Law’ and the Human Sense of Justice: An Afterword to Martti Koskenniemi’s Foreword

Social Science Research Network, Apr 1, 2020

Rereading Grotius in 2019 as a sequel to the 1990 and 2009 European Journal of International Law'... more Rereading Grotius in 2019 as a sequel to the 1990 and 2009 European Journal of International Law's contributions on 'the politics of international law', at a time of staggering global inequality, Martti Koskenniemi asks what we can learn from Grotius about the 'tendency [of humans] to subordinate themselves' to law and, I may add, the limits of that tendency. While I agree with Koskenniemi that Grotius' 'rule-of-law' conception may help us understand the current backlash against the international rule of law, I suggest an alternative reading of this conception that may assist us even more. Grotius' understanding of humans and of the importance of corrective and distributive justice as components of the international rule of law helps us see the cry 'take back control' as 'indignation' about the (social) injustices and global inequality that international institutions (re)produce and as a cry for just international institutions. Koskenniemi's Foreword rightly asks: what is 'required of us'? I suggest that we should understand the current backlash as an institutional crisis as well as a crisis of selfhood. Reading Grotius may encourage us to include critical language of distributive justice in our 'bricolage' to address 'legitimate popular grievance' about the international rule of law and address the human desire for just institutions also at the international level.

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Populism and International Law: What Backlash and Which Rubicon?

Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, 2019

This chapter introduces the theme of the volume, populism and international law, as well as its c... more This chapter introduces the theme of the volume, populism and international law, as well as its chapters. It does so by first discussing the Dutch political reality with its increasingly populist tendencies that was on the minds of the Editors when deciding to devote a volume to this theme. Subsequently, it explores briefly the many faces of populism and the different manifestations of the relationship between populism and international law. Rather than taking the so-called populist backlash against globalisation, international law and governance, at face value, this volume aims to dig deeper beyond mere ‘backlash’ rhetoric and wonders ‘what backlash are we talking about, really?’ While populism is contextual and contingent on the society in which it rises and its relationship with international law and institutions thus has differed likewise, this chapter’s historical reflections assist in our examination of what we find so dangerous about populism and problematic in its relationship with international law. It concludes by introducing the chapters individually and to some degree in relation to each other.

Special Issue Grotiana on Mare Liberum 1609-2009

Corporate Social Responsibility: a conceptual challenge to international law

With the general exclusion of private actors from the universal public order and the inclusion of... more With the general exclusion of private actors from the universal public order and the inclusion of dualism between the national and international legal order of the late 18th century, the Trans-National Corporation (TNC) was transformed from subject of the law of nations and nature into an object of international law. Only indirectly, by diplomatic protection, was it represented at the international plane. In spite of their global reach, the TNC was subjected to national law only. During the second part of the 20th century, this situation was increasingly addressed as it was seen as (occasionally) unsatisfactory both in practice and theory. The particular nature, interests, influence, and radius of action of the TNC became a conceptual challenge to international law. An attempt to conceptualise CSR in terms of international law thus stands in a longer tradition in which the discourse can not escape from addressing what is also called the public/private dichotomy. The international law discipline has been debating the possibility of bridging the dichotomy with the traditional concept of International Legal Personality. Today, however, an alternative approach to the conceptual challenge posed by the position of the TNC and the Corporate Social Responsibility issue may be necessary. Accordingly, this chapter argues to direct our attention to the emerging field of Global Administrative Law and the framework for analysis that it offers.

Paul Ricoeur and International Law: Beyond ‘The End of the Subject’. Towards a Reconceptualization of International Legal Personality

Leiden Journal of International Law, 2007

The enquiry into international legal personality in the following article is both descriptive and... more The enquiry into international legal personality in the following article is both descriptive and prescriptive in nature. On the one hand, the phenomenon of the (legal) subject is described and explained, in order to offer a better reflection on, and analysis of, its existence. This holds for both the individual and the (so central to international law) collective subject. On the other hand, our attempt at reconceptualization has a clear normative aspect. Reconstructing (international) legal personality on the basis of anthropology and ethics as an inextricable part of the identity of a person results in a conception of (international) law as justice. And this means that international legal personality reconceptualized along the lines suggested in this paper functions to develop just international institutions and just international law.

On Faith in the Moral Force of International Law. Martin Wight and Hugo de Groot: Four Seminal Thinkers in International Theory. Machiavelli, Grotius, Kant, and Mazzini, Martin Wight

Journal of the History of International Law, 2010

The present essay arose out of my reading of Wight’s posthumously published lectures which aimed ... more The present essay arose out of my reading of Wight’s posthumously published lectures which aimed to see whether these would be suitable for teaching a course on the history and theory of international law. The essay then grew into a – modest – intervention in the current debate on Grotius and the Grotian tradition. Wight’s reading of Grotius yields a definition of the ‘Grotian heritage’; significantly different from Tuck’s interpretation, which has poignant relevance today in the light of unanswered questions on the relationship between morality and international law and on the responsibility of international lawyers.

Research Handbook on International Law and Cities

The emerging roles of cities in international law – introductory remarks on practice, scholarship and the Handbook

Research Handbook on International Law and Cities

Over the past three decades, a rich and diverse research field has developed, dealing with the in... more Over the past three decades, a rich and diverse research field has developed, dealing with the increasingly global activities as well as character and role of cities in the age of globalisation. No longer just sites of 'the local', cities are spaces where global influences play out just as well, as they have become actors that meaningfully contribute to shaping what we imagine 'the global' to be. Contributions to this dynamic research field stem from various disciplines: first sociologists and urban geographers took note of new dynamics in the relationships between the global and the local, with a particular focus on how the shift from the international to the global economy during the 1970s and 1980s affected and reconstituted cities. 1 Other academic fields followed suit. Historians dealt with the role that cities played in the multiple networks and interconnections in which especially the sub-field of global history takes a keen interest. 2 In the field of political science, scholars of international relations (IR) started to analyse how the emergence of city networks created new forms of diplomacy and transformed the world-system. 3 The city in all its dimensions is a classical theme in art history. Today, Franz Ackermann brings urbanism and globalism together in his work on the unsafe grounds on which the lived experiences of contemporary cities rest. 4 Law as an academic field has been a latecomer to this development. There are several reasons for this slow embrace. Local government lawyers who primarily deal with cities and the legal forms in which city governments act are traditionally not too concerned with international discourses and debates. 5 International lawyers, on the other hand, have tended to neglect this development for quite some time as well, possibly due to the traditional state-centric outlook 1

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The future of the city and the international law of the future

Janne Nijman observes that globalisation is accompanied by urbanisation, and that many – if not m... more Janne Nijman observes that globalisation is accompanied by urbanisation, and that many – if not most – of the challenges of globalisation come to the fore in cities: environmental pollution, crime, inequality, migration, cultural diversity, unemployment; to name a few. She distinguishes between the private city (the collective of private economic interests) and the public city (the city governments who increasingly operate as global actors). In her article she presents six propositions on how the public city will affect international law. She sees that direct links between cities and global institutions will intensify. This is already very visible in the area of environmental law, with NGO‘s facilitating these links. Cities will also be implementers of international law of their own accord, thus bypassing the state. Connected with this, Janne Nijman envisages that the international law of the future will 'de-formalise'; following local judges city governments will apply it s...

Legal Personality as a Fundamental Concept of International Law

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

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Non-State Actors and the International Rule of Law: Revisiting the 'Realist Theory' of International Legal Personality

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2009

In the next ten to twenty years our world will transform dramatically. Globalization, demographic... more In the next ten to twenty years our world will transform dramatically. Globalization, demographic challenges, climate change, and the geopolitics of energy, among other developments, will challenge our current world governance structures. There is a looming global governance deficit as new powers-both state and (notably) non-state 1-rise and international institutions fail to respond adequately, thus risking to create institutional decay rather than institutional innovation and adaptation. Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World (2008) of the US National Intelligence Council analyzes these developments and the way in which these (may) interact as change-driving factors. The report identifies global trends and-depending on how the variables are weighedcalculates four possible scenario's or alternative futures. In each of these futures, non-state actors (NSAs) play a role and in one of the four scenarios, Politics is Not Always Local, NSAs and NSA-networks are assessed as the international agendasetters of the future, who even "use their clout to elect the UN Secretary General." 2 Such clout would in fact be unsurprising to IR/IL scholars. After all, NGOs and NGO-networks have played a significant role in the establishment of international criminal tribunals and the ICC to mention just one example of extensive NSA influence. Underlying all scenarios is the "relative certainty" that "the relative power of various nonstate actors-including businesses, tribes, religious organizations, and even criminal networks-will grow as these groups influence decisions on a widening range of social, economic, and political issues." 3 This global trend will bring significant changes to the international system: "By 2025, nation-states will no longer be the only-and often not the most important-actors on the world stage and the "international * An earlier draft of this paper was prepared for the first seminar of the research project "Non-state Actors and International Law" recognized and funded as a "Research Community" by the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research for the period 2009-2013 and co-organized by the ILA's Committee on Non-State actors. I am grateful to the participants of this seminar for their comments on this earlier draft.

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